School Children 100+ Years Ago

 

Pictured above is a group of children from classes 3-A and 4-B at Sycamore School in 1919. Most of the young people look very serious. While the students have not been identified, we know that Polly Smith is among the children in the picture. Sycamore School was built in 1876, and hosted students for more than 100 years, until the building was repurposed into apartments in 1984.

The four young men above were on the second team of the Eagles basketball team in 1920. (We don't have information about the team, but it may have been in a recreational/intramural league.) The surnames of the boys were listed on the back of the original picture. From left to right are: Meinzer, Schemenaur, Stephens, and Pusateri.

The students above were in class 3-B from Campbell School in 1919. There are 45 children in the group, but only one person has been identified. Thomas Rotsinger, the donor of the photograph, is the fourth person from the left, second row from bottom.

The Eighth Ward School, later known as Campbell School, was built in 1885 by Adam Feick and brothers and designed by J.C. Johnson. The building is now home to Nehemiah Partners of Sandusky, a nonprofit group that serves area youth.

The students above were in the first grade class at Monroe School (Ninth Ward) in 1911. The Monroe School was built in 1894 to serve the students of what was then the Ninth Ward of Sandusky.

Sandusky School Children in 1919-1920

Pictured below is a group of children from classes 3-A and 4-B at Sycamore School in 1919. While the students have not been identified, we know that Polly Smith is among the children in the picture. Sycamore School was built in 1876; by 1984, the school was closed and the new owner re-purposed it as an apartment building.

The four young men below were on the second team of the Eagles basketball team in 1920. The surnames of the boys were listed on the back of the original picture. From left to right are: Meinzer, Schemenaur, Stephens, and Pusateri.

The next picture shows class 3-B from Campbell School in 1919. There are 45 children in the group, but only one person has been identified. Thomas Rotsinger, the donor of the photograph, is the fourth person from the left, second row from bottom.

Campbell School, designed by J.C. Johnson, was built in 1885 by Adam Feick and brothers. The former Campbell School is now home to Nehemiah Partners of Sandusky, a nonprofit group that benefits area youth.

Second Baptist Church: Sandusky's Pioneer African American Church

 In May 1949, the Second Baptist Church, then led by the Rev. R.T. Booker, celebrated its centennial anniversary of service to the African American community in Sandusky. (The Sandusky Library Archives Research Center holds a copy of the commemorative program, as well as one for the 150th anniversary in 1999.) 

Rev. Booker, with wife Bernice and son Robert

The church, on Decatur Street in downtown Sandusky, was founded in 1849 by Sandusky residents, including Maria Winifred French, Laurence Johnston, and Mr. and Mrs. Nathaniel Jones. At first called Zion Baptist Church, it soon became known as the Anti-Slavery Baptist Church, until 1920 when the church was incorporated under its present name. Early members, most notably George J. Reynolds, were active in the Underground Railroad, aiding many people to escape to Canada.

The original building (pictured above) was acquired by church members, and it served as the house of worship until 1934, when the present church was constructed around the frame of the earlier building. 

As the church grew and became self-sustaining, members were able to hire their first pastor in 1856, Rev. Israel Campbell. The longest serving pastor at Second Baptist was Rev. W. Benson Stephens, who served from 1972 to 2008.

Rev. Stephens and Family in 1999

The church continues to serve the community more than 170 years after its founders established the church as a weapon against slavery and a beacon to those seeking freedom and faith.

Sandusky City Schools Report Card from 1848-1849

This  report card from  the arithmetic class of Miss L. A. Barney  for the term that met December 4, 1848 to March 17, 1849 was given to the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center by the Dean family. Miss Barney was a teacher in the Grammar School department of Sandusky City Schools.  

Names of the boys in the class were: Samuel Belford, John Dean, Benjamin Gregg, Robert Matthews, John Monroe, Christopher Mores, Max Rhobacher, James Van Fleet, and Joshua Watson. The young ladies in the class were: Mary Clarkson, Eliza Fisher, Margaret Garvey, Sarah Jane Jenks, Sarah Stephens, Sarah Willston, and Sarah Withington. Beside each student’s name were “exceptions to morals” in several catagories, and  the number learned for preliminary defitions, addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. At the bottom of the report card were the signatures of Miss L.A. Barney, teacher, and M.F. Cowdery, superintendent of schools. 

M.F. Cowdery was the first superintendent of schools in Sandusky, serving in that capacity until 1871. He wrote a history of Sandusky City Schools, entitled Local School history of the City of Sandusky, from 1838 to1871 Inclusive, published by the Journal Steam Printing House in February 1876. A copy of this brief history is found in the Schools Collection of the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center. In the early history of Sandusky Schools, Mr. Cowdery recalled that before school buildings were built, classrooms were rented in the Methodist Chapel, Presbyterian Church, Grace Church, and a brick building in the Western Liberties. 

In February of 1844, a committee consisting of Moors Farwell, Alexander Porter, and Zenas Barker, voted in favor of purchasing lots near the East and West Markets, and one in the Western Liberties as the sites of school buildings. A high school building was to be erected on the public square. The Academy building, pictured below, was originally built on the east public square as the high school, but was also used as an early Courthouse for Erie County prior to the construction of the new high school in 1869 and the Courthouse in 1874.

M.F. Cowdery was still serving as superintendent of Sandusky City Schools when the new high school building opened in 1869.

Mary Marilla Stephens Overheard Plot to Free Prisoners at Johnson’s Island

Mary Marilla Stephens was born in 1846 in Perkins Township to Mr. and Mrs. William Stephens. When Mary was 17, she moved to a rooming house on Madison Street in Sandusky, to be close to the high school in Sandusky. On the evening of September 18, 1864, Mary overheard several Confederate men talking loudly about a plot to overtake the guards at Johnson’s Island prison and release several hundred Confederate officers.

Mary was frightened, as her brother, Jefferson Stephens was on duty as a guard at Johnson’s Island. She slipped out of the rooming house, and hurried to the home of her sister-in-law, Mrs. Washington Stephens. Washington Stephens, Mary’s brother, was stationed in Washington D.C. at the time. The proper authorities were tipped off, and, perhaps sensing this, the plotters aborted their plans -- but not before they hijacked two steamers, the Philo Parsons and the Island Queen (both shown below).

You can read more about the plot to free the prisoners at Johnson’s Island in Charles E. Frohman’s book Rebels on Lake Erie, and online at the Cornell Library New York State Historical Literature collection, among other sources. Additionally, a new book, written by Ohio native James E. Duffey, Victim of Honor: The Story of John Y. Beall and the Northwestern Conspiracy, studies the conspiracy through a focus on its leader, John Yates Beall. 

In 1867 Mary Marilla Stephens married Jesse Greene, who was a descendant of the Taylor and House families who settled in Perkins Township in 1815. They had five children. Mary was widowed in 1894, but she lived to the age of 93 years. Her obituary stated that she was “one of the best known women in Erie County.” She had been a member of the Perkins Methodist Church, Ladies Aid Society, Home Missionary Society, and was a charter member of the Perkins Grange. She is buried in Perkins Cemetery in the Greene family plot.